


to sing, to say

by mirkandmidnight



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Theatre, Crack, M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-21
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2018-05-22 11:46:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6078186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mirkandmidnight/pseuds/mirkandmidnight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a local production of the Sound of Music going on, and Poe is really not happy with the role he's been cast.</p>
            </blockquote>





	to sing, to say

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a prompt from the lovely worldsgreatestnerd that I have been planning on actually posting here for ages, so here you go.

Poe stared at the cast list in utter shock. He’d auditioned for the Sound of Music hoping to be Rolf, or maybe Captain Von Trapp. He’d thought he’d done a decent job of auditioning, too. Not this badly.

He flashed back to the auditions. On his way towards the room, he’d run into another tall guy, with dark hair and a wicked scar bisecting his face. It had been an accident, it really had, and he’d intended to apologize. But then the guy had glared and snarled something under his breath, and all thoughts of apology had fled his mind. As the guy walked away, 

Poe had crossed his eyes at his retreating back and flipped him off.

The director, Luke Skywalker, had cleared his throat and ushered him into the audition room. Poe winced, but Luke’s eyes were twinkling. The rest of the audition had been strange. Luke had asked him a lot of questions about how high his range went, which wasn’t really something you asked a prospective male lead. He hadn’t bothered to ask any questions about it at the time, as it hadn’t seemed all that strange in the midst of his audition stress.

Poe was beginning to regret that decision. Because he hadn’t been cast as Rolf or Captain Von Trapp or even Max, the weird friend who was oddly insistent on having the Von Trapp kids sing in the festival.

No. He had been cast as Maria.

What? His eyes flicked down to see who was playing Captain Von Trapp. Maybe it was a genderswapped production. That would be okay. That would be kind of cool, actually. He wondered how they would do some of the singing, but that wasn’t his problem to deal with. His gaze settled on the name of the actor playing Captain Von Trapp.

Ben Solo.

Goddammit.

Poe became suddenly aware of someone standing behind his shoulder. He turned around irritably, planning to tell whoever it was off. But his mouth fell open as soon as he saw the man’s face. It was the guy he’d run into earlier, and he looked pissed.

“Who the hell is Poe Dameron?” the man thundered.

Poe raised a hand slowly, a little scared, and damned if he was going to admit it, but a little turned on too. 

The man inspected him carefully, his grim expression settling onto his face. The unadulterated anger in his eyes seemed to have been toned down into something more like acceptance. The man nodded once.

“Okay. This obviously isn’t your fault, so I’m not going to waste my energy on you.”

Poe raised an eyebrow. “Who are you?” Something about this guy was really pissing him off. Maybe it was the attitude. Maybe it was the assumption that Poe was somehow incapable of playing a role originally written for a woman.

“Ben Solo,” the man said, and okay, that actually explained a lot. Poe had thought Luke’s eyes had lingered a little longer than necessary on Ben when they had met earlier. “And we’re going to get this settled. Come with me,” he demanded, grabbing Poe by the elbow and dragging him along down the hall. Poe slapped at his hands ineffectively, but Ben continued to pull him along to an office with the name Luke Skywalker emblazoned over the doorknob.

Ben knocked on it, and Poe took advantage of his inattention to rip his arm free of Ben’s grip. The door opened, and Luke appeared on the other side. He opened the door fully, so both of them could enter.

“I thought I might be hearing from you two today,” he commented. “What can I do for you?”

Ben stabbed an accusing finger at Poe, although he wasn’t turned to look at him. “Why is this your Maria?”

Luke raised an eyebrow. “You’re very young, Ben, and I don’t expect you to understand all the complicated details that go into casting a show. A director has to take into account acting ability as well as singing ability and chemistry with your costars.”

“Bullshit,” Ben interrupted.

He nodded. “Yeah. Basically, I shipped it.”

Ben sputtered. “You shipping it is not an excuse to try and cast this man as Maria! How is he supposed to sing all the required parts? Or don’t tell me you actually expect him to sing a C above the staff."

Poe raised a hand. “I mean, I can totally do it.”

Luke cut in. “By no means would we expect him to do that. The parts will be moved down into a range that is more comfortable for Mr. Dameron.” He levelled Ben with a steady gaze. “Why, it’s not like you to take this much of an interest in casting. Something the matter?” The old director smirked.

Ben took one look at Luke, then glanced over to Poe, then stormed out of the room, slamming the office door shut behind him.

Luke sighed. “Sorry about my nephew, Mr. Dameron. I hope it won’t be a terribly uncomfortable atmosphere for you.”

He waved a hand. “Nah, I’ll deal. But what about him?”

The director shrugged. “I’ll set his mother on him if he doesn’t behave.”

Poe felt himself starting to smile. This might not actually be as bad as he’d originally thought.

***

He was wrong. It was worse. Ben didn’t even bother speaking to him during the rehearsals, which was going to be really awkward once they actually got to the scenes where they had to talk to one another. He spent all his time with the people playing Max and the Countess, a red head named Hux and a terrifyingly gorgeous woman called Phasma.

Well, that was fine. Poe had his own friends in the cast. He’d quickly befriended the kid playing Rolf, a guy named Finn who’d needed a ride home from rehearsal one day. He’d met Rey, who was playing Liesel, shortly afterwards. She spent a lot of time up on the catwalk with the ancient lighting tech, Yoda, who kept telling Poe to learn the ways of the lighting panel.

Okay then.

“So anyone know what they’re going to do about the name?” Poe asked, taking a sip of his water.

Finn shrugged. “I heard Luke saying they were going to change it to Marius or something. Still sounds as good, and much less confusing for the audience.”

Poe groaned. “Oh, great. Now we can do Les Miserables instead.” He stretched his arms out from his sides and sang, “My name is Marius Pontmercy!”

Ben, who apparently had just been passing by, replied “And mine’s Cosette,” in a surprisingly passable falsetto.

He turned and stared at the other man. “What the hell was that?”

Ben shrugged. “You’re not the only one around here who’s multifaceted,” he said, then walked back to Phasma and Hux, looking insufferably smug about the whole thing.

Poe was going to murder him. Really, he was.

***

The weeks of them avoiding each other were at an end. It was time to rehearse the first scene with both of them. Poe was dreading this rehearsal, and from the way that Ben was alternately staring at him and pretending he didn’t exist, he wasn’t exactly thrilled about the whole thing either.

It was the first scene where they met, which was a large group scene. All the children were in it, for a good portion of the scene. But the important thing, according to Luke, was the fact that sparks had to fly between them immediately.

That...could be bad.

They made it through most of the scene all right, until the bit with the whistles. Captain Con Trapp was supposed to instruct Maria to address his children by blowing a whistle, upon which Maria (Marius?) push back a little against his harsh style of parenting. Poe had his thoughts already about Marius’s character, which were that he was probably fairly mild mannered, having been brought up in a convent with a bunch of nuns.

It was just that, according to Luke, that wasn’t producing the right amount of sparks.

“Again!” Luke called, and Poe stifled a groan. Ben glared at him from across the stage as they reset.

Poe stuck his tongue out in reply, and they began from the same point. Ben turned away, preparing to leave the stage. Completely fed up with his antics, Poe blew sharply into the whistle, sending a piercing shriek out. Ben whipped around, hands clapped over his ears, his face thunderous.

“I’m sorry, sir,” he said, completely straightfaced, “but you haven’t told me what signal I’m to call you by.” Poe winked, and the utterly furious look on Ben’s face was so worth it.

***

And so the rehearsal period progressed in this fashion, Ben either ignoring Poe or actively making his life a living hell, and Poe using his frustration as a catalyst for the chemistry they were suppoed to be having onstage. Hate and love weren’t all that different, he decided, and having Marius start out hating his employer was a lot easier.

The rest of the cast, thankfully, was brilliant. Phasma played an excellent Countess,, singing beautifully and looking unbelievably elegant every time she swept onstage. Finn and Rey were actually really cute in their roles, and Poe couldn’t say anything bad about Hux. He still hadn’t actually heard Ben sing, but that was to be expected. He only had two songs in the whole show, one of which was their love duet.

Poe shuddered. The less he thought about that song, the better it would be for his sanity. Every time someone brought it up to Luke, the director smiled secretively and shuffled papers. Frankly, it was making Poe really nervous. Like, really nervous.

They’d just finished that night’s rehearsal, and Poe was dreading having to ask someone for a ride home. His car was in the shop after the fender bender he’d had last week, and neither Finn nor Rey had been at rehearsal. Phasma had already left, Hux following close at her heels. That just left Ben, and if he didn’t manage to get a ride from him, he would   
be stranded at the theater.

“Hey,” he called out, and Ben looked up from stuffing his belongings into his bag. “Any chance I could get a ride?”

Ben sighed, but nodded. Poe found a grin spreading across his face as he followed Ben out of the building. “Hey, thanks,” he said.

“Don’t mention it,” Ben said shortly.

“But-” Poe said.

“No, seriously, don’t mention it,” Ben said. “Can’t have people thinking we’re fraternizing or anything.” The corner of his lip twitched.

“Was that a joke?” Poe said, aghast. “Did you just make a joke?”

He looked wounded. “I make jokes.”

“You never make jokes.”

“I do so!” Ben snapped as he held the door of his car open for Poe. Poe got in and he headed around to the other side. “I did the Cosette thing, didn’t I?”

He stared out the window. “Oh, yeah. That happened.” It was really odd spending this time alone with Ben. He didn’t think they’d ever spent any time together without someone else in the room. It was strange, like he was seeing another facet of the man that no one else saw.

“Where do you live?” Ben asked.

Poe snapped out of his reverie long enough to answer Ben’s question, then stared out the window as they drove. It would be nice if things could stay this way. It would be really, really nice.

***

Of course, things couldn’t stay that peaceful. Especially not with them rehearsing the kissing scene the next day. Poe arrived early to psyche himself up for the scene. It was a closed rehearsal, thankfully. Poe didn’t think he would have been able to deal with a rehearsal that was open tot he entire cast.

But Ben wasn’t being very cooperative. For starters, he arrived ten minutes late looking flustered and holding a Starbucks cup in one hand. Once they finally got into rehearsing the scene, Luke kept calling for redos before they’d even gotten to the kissing bit. And it wasn’t Poe’s fault. Something about Ben was just off today. He seemed stilted and almost awkward, and bristled whenever someone tried to call him on it.

Poe sat down on one of the benches lining the set with a sigh. They had to get through this scene, and preferably without one of them punching each other.

“Again!” Luke called, and Poe stood. They began again, this time almost making it to the actual kiss. But just before it was supposed to happen, Ben paused. His eyes flitted back and forth, and he walked offstage, slamming the door behind him.

Poe swore under his breath and stormed after him. He caught up to Ben in the hallway just offstage, laying waste to somebody’s dressing room. Probably his own.

“What the hell was that, Solo?” he demanded, and Ben looked up. “We’re supposed to be professionals here, and you can’t even get through a kissing scene? You’ve got no right to say I can’t play my role and then not do yours.”

“I’m sorry, who died and made you the director?” Ben shot back. “You’re not my boss, you don’t get to tell me how to do my job.”

“I’m your scene partner!” Poe shouted. “And you don’t let your scene partner fall. You don’t just leave them hanging without explanation. I could have helped, but oh no, the   
mighty Ben Solo has to go it alone.” He paused. “It’s because I’m a guy, aren’t I?”

“What?”

Poe felt himself getting angry. “Am I honestly that repulsive to you?”

Ben whipped around and in one smooth gesture, brought his hands up to cup Poe’s face. “You’re the most infuriating person I’ve ever met,” he growled, and kissed Poe.

***

So...yeah. That had happened. And no one was really talking about it so Poe was really unsure what to do about the whole thing because it was opening night and things were awkward and he hadn’t actually spoken to Ben outside of rehearsals since the whole thing had happened and he didn’t think his career could take it if this thing failed.

“Ten minutes till curtain,” one of the ASMs said, poking her head through the door of Poe’s dressing room. Oh god. It was happening. It was really happening.

Poe raced towards the wings, swearing and trying to fix his hair as he went. He tripped over his shoes and shut his eyes, fully expecting to slam into the floor. But arms wrapped around his waist and he found himself pressed up against Ben.

“Sorry,” he said, standing up straight.

Ben looked faintly amused. “It’s fine.” He paused. “Do good out there tonight, yeah?”

Poe nodded. “Yeah.”

And things did go well. Things actually went really, really well. No one messed up throughout the entire first act, and by the time they got to the final scene, Poe was beginning to think that no one was going to flub anything. And no one did. It was the first time that Poe had gotten through an opening night without a major messup.

After the curtain call, while Poe was taking off his stage makeup, he heard a knock on his door. “Come in!” he called, setting down the cloth and cold cream he’d been using.

Ben opened the door, looking uncharacteristically shy. “Hiya,” he said.

“Hi?” he said.

He twisted his hands. “So, I was wondering if you maybe wanted to go out to dinner sometime?”

Poe stared at him. “What?”

Ben froze. “You know. Dinner. Food. Eating? Any of these ringing a bell? Um.”

If Poe’s face could show the expression that was the equivalent of three question marks in twelve point, italicized font, he would do that. “Why?”

He ran a hand through his hair. “The kissing bit wasn’t obvious enough?”

“Hold on,” Poe said, what?”

Ben raised his hands in surrender. “Hey, I would have said something, but you weren’t saying anything, and that was kind of unnerving so I just thought I’d let it be but I’d really rather not and there’s a fun Chinese place down the street.”

Poe shut his mouth and decided to just go with the flow. How bad could it possibly be? They’d already gotten the screaming rows and ignoring one another over with. “Sure,” he said.


End file.
